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2014 a year of extremes in air safety

Julie Power

A year of extremes: Three times as many passengers have died in commercial flights this year than last year. Photo: Supplied

More than three times as many air passengers have died in commercial jet crashes this year than in 2013. But despite the three fatal crashes in July alone, the number of disasters is still below the average, says an independent air safety monitoring company.

Last year was the safest year in aviation history since 1945 with 265 people killed in commercial jet crashes. This continued the downward trend in deaths from a high of 2429 deaths in 1972.

This year there have been 761 deaths in 12 different crashes, said Aviation Safety Record, a company that monitors plane crashes from all causes, including sabotages and hijackings. Its safety barometer showed there had been "12 fatal airliner accidents so far, which still is well below the 10-year average of 17".

As Australians prepare for a national day of mourning for the victims of Flight MH17, shot down over Ukraine, the network said that 2014 was so far the 12th worst year for air safety.

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The three crashes in July – in Ukraine (MH17), Taiwan (TransAsia flight GE222) and Mali (Air Algérie flight AH5017) – had raised "concerns in international media about air safety." But the Record said statistics showed 2014 had been a "year of extremes" . While January this year had been the safest month on record in aviation history, July had been the fifth worst month ever.

The Prime Minister Mr Abbott has declared this Thursday will be a National Day of Mourning to honour the victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Flags on all government buildings will be flown at half-mast. "We grieve for all, but particularly for the 38 men, women and children who called Australia home," he said.

The deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss has rejected claims that the search for MH370, believed to have gone down somewhere in the Indian Ocean, has been sidelined as resources are redirected to recover bodies in the Ukraine. Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who was leading the search to recover MH370 in the Indian Ocean, has been sent to the Ukraine to help with the search.

In a statement last week, the JACC said two ships,Zhu Kezhen and Fugro Equator, continued to work in the southern Indian Ocean, surveying the sea floor in preparation for the deep-sea search for MH370. The deep-water search should commence in September after the long process of mapping the sea floor has been completed.

As the search for clues continues, a new book by New Zealand authors claims Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the pilot of MH370, probably used the flight to commit mass murder/suicide. The captain may have even glided the out-of-fuel 777 and sunk it intact, say Geoff Taylor and Ewan Wilson, the authors of Goodnight Malaysian 370.